Shield Wall

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Shield wall rocks defending bridges! Shrt way to heroic victories and remarkable battle site markers.

Congrats on the seniorship Wathcman!
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[Watchman]

...when did that happen ?

"Fred, I've been elevated!"
"Nasty! Did you see who did it?"
- Feet of Clay

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I find leaving them on guard mode helps because they maintain formation.

[Cras]

I tend to use the unit the stratch it out and make a sort front line icing on my heavy cohorts....
if they are then attact by cavalry their impact is maximum.
I usually use them in the centre and on the wings, the wings horsemen try to outflank you, and in the centre the opposing general usually tries to break though

[Lobosolitario]

So far my experience of the shield wall has been limited to the Goths (mainly goth spearmen) and when trying to block fords with spearmen in shield wall formation, I found they tend to be quite tenacious defenders, but that they tended to lose formation quite quickly, and end up interspersed with the attackers. Could anyone provide input on the following questions about the formation, please?

-Does overlapping/stacking multiple shield wall / non shield wall units in a small area detract from the effectiveness of the individual units?

-Do soldiers still benefit from shield wall bonuses if they move out of the wall, or are separated from their comrades by the press of battle?

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi Lobosolitario,
Lining up a large amount of shield wall units can only detract from the effectiveness if a large amount of enemy units are coming towards your troops in shield wall. Although it allows for better defence - especially against charges, it, compacting the units together, causes the unit's area to be smaller causing flanking to be easier, especially by cavalry troops.

I'm not totally sure about your second question, yet I would think so. I have done some testing, in EB, with the shield wall formation with the BI.exe, and I have found that the moment I removed the men from the shield wall their death rate increased drastically and I started to lose. However, I may be wrong.

Hope this helps you, cheers!